Food preservation, healthy living classes offered in Sitka

Food preservation, healthy living classes offered in Sitka

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service in Southeast Alaska is offering food preservation, entrepreneurship and healthy living classes in Sitka from July 7-12.

Extension professor Sarah Lewis will lead the workshops in collaboration with Jasmine Shaw from the Sitka District office.

• On Tuesday, July 7, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., Lewis will discuss Alaska's homemade food rules. She will also introduce basic safety practices for produce growers and farmers. The free class is at the Sitka Public Library, 320 Harbor Drive.
• On Wednesday, July 8, from 6-8 p.m., she will attend the Sitka Community Garden Potluck. Sitka-area gardeners are encouraged to bring a dish to share, as well as their midsummer gardening tips. Lewis will demonstrate how to safely preserve berries, wild plants and garden harvests for the pantry shelf while preserving their quality and nutrition. In this class, Lewis will introduce pressure canning, water-bath canning, dehydrating, pickling and freezing. The free workshop and potluck is at See House, 611 Lincoln St.
• On Thursday, July 9, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., Lewis will teach workshop participants how to dehydrate herbs and use them to create culinary salts, infuse vinegars and flavor sugars. The workshop is at Sitka Lutheran Church. The cost is $20. Registration is available at https://bit.ly/HerbSalts.
• On Saturday, July 11, Lewis will be at the Sitka Farmers Market, 235 Katlian St., from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to conduct free tests on pressure canner dial gauges. She will also answer questions about pressure canners and food preservation. Free food preservation publications will be available.
• On Sunday, July 12, Lewis will lead a menopause mocktail hour at See House from 1-3 p.m. She will discuss strategies and lifestyle changes that women can make before or during perimenopause to enable them to enter menopause with strength and confidence. The cost is $10. Registration is available at https://bit.ly/MenoMocktails.

For more information, contact Lewis at [email protected].

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made five business days in advance to Alda Norris at [email protected] or 907-474-7120. Language access services, such as interpretation or translation of vital information, will be provided free of charge to individuals with limited English proficiency upon request to [email protected].

This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

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